A Study Of Cognitive Vocabulary Learning Strategy Training For English Majors

As vocabulary is one of the most important parts of language acquisition, it is also the major stumbling block facing most Chinese college students. In the course of second language acquisition study, vocabulary learning strategies have always been the research focus of numerous studies at home and abroad. The study on vocabulary learning strategy has developed, after a long period of neglect, into a prolific period since the 1980's. Many researchers take great interest in the processes and strategies of vocabulary learning by second language learners. As far as the present study in China is concerned, the researches on vocabulary learning strategies are mainly focusing on the non-English majors. Compared with other key universities in China, the English majors in the Sciences and Engineering Colleges are comparatively lower in their English proficiency. Thus this study aims to construct a cognitive vocabulary learning strategies training program for sophomore English majors in the Sciences and Engineering Colleges.The subjects in this study were 84 sophomore English majors from Shandong Jianzhu University. Among them,45 students belong to the experimental group and 39 students belong to the control group. The instruments used in this study included a questionnaire and two vocabulary tests to assess the participants'vocabulary level and their vocabulary proficiency. The questionnaire in this study was revised based on Gu and Johnson (1996). The Vocabulary Levels Test (5,000-word level) of Nation (2001) was selected to assess the participants'vocabulary size. And the vocabulary part of Test for English Majors Band 4 (TEM4) was chosen in order to test participants'vocabulary depth.The experiment in this thesis was designed to answer the following questions:1. What are the overall patterns of cognitive vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese sophomore English majors?2. What are the changes in the use of cognitive vocabulary learning strategies after training?3. What are the correlations between cognitive vocabulary learning strategies training and vocabulary knowledge? What cognitive vocabulary learning strategies can best predict the learners'vocabulary knowledge?The analysis of the experimental data manifests the following results:(1). The students in both groups reported to use a variety of CVLS, such as, contextual guessing, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies and rehearsal strategies. (2). The results of independent-sample t-tests and paired-sample t-tests show that CVLS training does have an impact on the students'vocabulary acquisition. (3). There are correlations between vocabulary proficiency and CVLS use for experimental group.Judging from the above analysis, the training of cognitive vocabulary learning strategies is effective. It can not only improve the students'vocabulary proficiency and their usage of CVLS as well. The teachers are supposed to employ scientific and efficient CVLS training in everyday teaching, so that the students can apply the CVLS in their vocabulary studies. Besides, based on the present research, the author made a careful study on the concrete pedagogical implications for cognitive vocabulary learning strategies training. In the end, corresponding limitations and suggestions are included so as to promote future CVLS training and improve English learning.